


Doomsday Clock

by kenchang



Category: Grayson (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Nightwing (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 10:23:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21426661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenchang/pseuds/kenchang
Summary: Has Dick Grayson been entrusted with a magic watch that can really prevent or cause disasters?
Relationships: Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Doomsday Clock

**Author's Note:**

> Contains character breaks and inconsistencies to source material. It's only fan fiction after all.

Officer Dick Grayson drifts in and out of consciousness as he sits on a bench while waiting for the bus. It is very late, and it's been a rough day. He didn't chase after criminals or rescue hapless citizens. He lives for those moments. No, the only excitement he had today was from proofreading his police reports. For two seconds, he accidentally rests his head on the shoulder of the young woman sitting next to him.

"Sorry," he groggily tells her.

"I didn't mind," she replies, smiling suggestively.

Dick just politely smiles back. Suddenly, they are startled by the loud ringing of an alarm. An old man at the edge of the long bench presses a button on top of an even older gold watch attached to a small chain, stopping the noise.

"Sorry," the old man meekly says to the other commuters.

Dick recognizes him. His name is Winston, a homeless man that plays the harmonica (rather poorly) for change near the police station. When Dick isn't too busy, which is rare, he would buy the old man a cup of hot chocolate from the doughnut shop across the street. Winston once offered to play a tune for him in exchange. Dick politely refused. So the old man decides to share life lessons from his experiences with the young policeman instead.

A few minutes later, the watch rings loudly once more. Winston presses the button and again apologizes for the disturbance.

A young man in a hoodie, intently watching the news in his smartphone about the volatile situation regarding the peace talks an American negotiator is mediating between the rebels and the Filipino government, shouts, "Hey, old man! Turn that thing down!"

"I can't," the old man responds. "It has to be this loud so I'm sure to hear it, even when I'm sleepin'."

The watch rings again, and Winston promptly stops it, but the young man has had enough.

"That's it," he says, marching towards the old man.

He snatches the watch, ripping it off its chain, and tosses it away.

"Hey!" Dick angrily shouts, standing up and getting in between the two men.

"What are you gonna do, hero?!" the young man taunts the police officer.

He reaches for his smartphone so that he can take a video of an angry policeman accosting him and upload it to his Facebook account for likes. But Dick knocks him out with a lightning quick right jab to the face before he can even begin to record.

"What just happened?" someone asks.

"Uhm…I don't know," another answers.

"Did he hit 'im?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think so. I never saw his hand move."

As the stunned commuters gasp and the young man crumples to the floor, Dick turns around to check on Winston. He finds the old man on hands and knees, frantically searching the grass in the darkness.

"Winston, are you okay?" Dick asks, getting down on one knee.

"Officer Grayson, you gotta help me find my watch!" the old man pleads. "We can't let the alarm finish!"

"Why? What happens when the alarm finishes?"

"Something very bad."

Then they hear the alarm. For a tense split second, the two men freeze and stare at each other.

Winston gasps and then screams, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, WHERE IS IT?!"

"I think it's coming from over there!" Dick tells him.

Using the flashlight app in his smartphone, he searches the ground.

"Hurry! Hurry! We only have three minutes!" the old man yells.

"Found it!" Dick says.

He grabs the watch and presses the button on top with his thumb, stopping the alarm before it could finish on its own.

Winston breathes a sigh of relief and says, "Oh, thank God. That was close."

He claps the officer on the shoulder. The two of them start to laugh when the older man suddenly groans, his face twisting in pain.

"Winston?" Dick worriedly says.

The old man falls on the ground, clutching at his chest. Dick quickly calls 911.

#

"You should go home, officer," a nurse tells Dick at the hospital. "Your friend is fine. He just needs to rest. And clearly, so do you. We'll take good care of him."

The policeman nods and thanks her.

Except Dick doesn't rest. Instead, he sits in a chair in his small apartment and stares at the old watch on the table. His pretty, bespectacled girlfriend, Barbara, is sitting in her wheelchair next to him.

"So what happens if you don't stop the alarm?" she asks him.

"Something very bad," Dick answers. "He wasn't specific."

"You want me to take it apart? Find out if there really is something special about it-"

"NO! If you take it apart, then the alarm won't work, and we won't be able to stop it."

"No alarm, no bad thing happens, right?"

"I don't know if the watch causes or prevents the bad thing from happening."

Barbara sighs and says, "Maybe neither. Maybe it has something to do with Winston's past. Maybe he ignored the alarm once and someone he loved got hurt or something. By coincidence, you know?"

"You think he's crazy?"

"I never said that."

"You think I'm being crazy though, right? But, Babs, we know people who can fly. Is it so hard to believe that some homeless old guy owns a magic watch?"

Barbara gently strokes his hair and softly says, "I think, between being both a cop and a superhero, you already have too much on your plate without having to worry about an old watch, magic or otherwise."

"You think I should just let the alarm finish by itself then?"

Barbara just quietly shrugs.

Then, as if on cue, the watch's alarm sounds. With his fast reflexes, Dick nearly snatches the watch off the table, but he manages to stop himself.

The watch continues to ring.

Dick swallows hard. A drop of sweat trickles down the side of his face.

A minute passes. The alarm seems deafening now. But Dick convinces himself that it's just his imagination.

Two minutes. The watch rings still.

Dick's fingers tremble. The alarm should stop any second now.

Suddenly, Barbara snatches the watch from the table and quickly stops the alarm.

Dick raises an eyebrow at her.

Barbara blushes in embarrassment and admits, "I-I couldn't help myself."

#

The next day, Dick Grayson goes to the hospital and arrives just in time to see Winston descend the front steps.

"Winston!" Dick calls.

"Officer Grayson!" the old man greets him cheerfully.

"Glad to see you back on your feet."

"Thank God it wasn't a heart attack. Somethin' I ate didn't agree with me."

"Oh! Here's your watch back. My girlfriend reattached it to the chain."

"Ah. Please thank her for me."

Winston takes the watch and shoves it into his coat pocket.

"Aren't you gonna ask me if I stopped the alarm or not?" Dick asks him.

"No need," the old man answers. "I know I left the watch in good hands."

Dick smiles warmly. He claps the other man on the shoulder and says, "Come on. Lemme buy you breakfast."

As they walk towards an eatery, they pass by a news stand. The headline on the front page of the paper reads, "CRISIS AVERTED: PEACE TALKS SUCCESSFUL".

Dick wonders about this for a second, but he quickly dismisses it from his thoughts as they enter the eatery.

END

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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